German companies are resource efficiency experts

One of the main reasons for efficient use of resources is the dramatically increase of prices due to highly global demands. Especially fast growing countries like China or India are responsible for the high pressure on raw material prices. Within the last 10 years, prices for imported raw materials and energy increased more than 150% for the german industry. The consequences for industries that have to import 100% of raw materials needed for their production are tremendous. Some examples are copper, iron, nickel or cobalt.

CO2 reduction via energy management

On the one hand, this development made the strategic purchasing of these industries to one of the most responsible departments for the success of the whole company. Raw materials represent with 46% of total expenses the main cost factor for the producing industry. By comparison, the share of personal costs is only 18%.

One the other hand, a lot of technology-driven companies created resource efficient solutions to reduce their demands for expensive imports. In some cases these companies are currently world market leader in providing high quality, efficient products for reasonable prices. A german manufacturer of heating technology, the company Viessmann, shows a practial example. For the energetic modernisation of the headquarter in Allendorf, Viessmann implemented an energy management system to use all rejected heat by machines to either heat or cool the whole production plant. Furthermore, fossil energy is more an more substituted by renewable energy, e.g. by a biogas plant. The result: annual costs for energy could be reduced by 600.000€ as well as GHG emissions by 3000 tons. Therefore, Viessmann received the german sustainability award 2011.

In general, facility management can contribute remarkably to the reduction of GHG emissions. So, I should mention it here to be an important part of the SuCess Toolbox.